JOSEF HÖGL & HIS SON GEORG

JOSEF: Grapes and everything that goes with them have preoccupied my father from the very beginning of his life. At first, that entailed above all our own vineyard and the work related to it. My grandparents and later also my father delivered our grapes to the regional co-operative Freie Weingärtner Wachau. But that was to change soon. He started to attend a viniculture course at the Weinbauschule Krems, and also began to work at the Prager winery. With his first salary he bought his first 1,000 litre steel tank, in which our wines are still fermenting even today. After ten decisive and shaping years at the Prager estate, five more at the F.X. Pichler winery followed. Both winemakers were inspiring teachers and genuine masters of the trade. In 1995 he finally started to cultivate and concentrate permanently on our estate, which was originally 3 to 4 hectares in size. Everything went very well, and we soon bought a couple of extra hectares of terraces. Some of our first great successes were the single-vineyard vinifications from the Bruck and Schön terraces.

GEORG: For some time now I am on equal footing with my father in the management and decision making of the estate. We share responsibilities and work together in the vineyards and cellar. Before I joined on a regular basis in 2014, I finished the VINOHAK in Krems, which is both trade academy and winemaking college at the same time and worked for half a year at a vineyard in Württemberg. Other places of importance that shaped his apprenticeship years are, of course, the vineyard, the terraces, the steep slopes and the cellar. Last but not least, I am acutely interested in aromas, sensorics, and the sheer diversity and complexity of wine. Whenever possible, I compare and contrast tastes. Wachauer Riesling with Riesling from Germany. Young wines, mature wines, experimental, weird and easy drinking stuff: on the one side I try all these wine because it is fun. On the other side, I taste them, because I am still eager to understand styles which might be interesting in a not too far future.